Civic's 'Chorus Line' True To Broadway Spirit

September 23, 1986|By Elizabeth Maupin , Sentinel Theater Critic

People said it couldn't be done.

People said that Civic Theatre of Central Florida -- or any other amateur theater group, for that matter -- would never be able to produce a creditable version of A Chorus Line, the demanding musical that is now in its 12th year on Broadway.

But the Civic's A Chorus Line will surprise the skeptics. This production, while not perfect, captures much of the drama and the pain and the magic that A Chorus Line holds. For those who love musicals, it's a treat.

Curiosity was aroused last year when amateur groups finally could secure the rights to perform A Chorus Line, which has been the longest-running show on Broadway since September 1983. It was hard to imagine that community theaters would be able to scrape together the talent to fill the roles of 17 Broadway ''gypsies'' (the dancers who make up Broadway choruses), whose singing, dancing and acting had to be beyond reproach. And purists worried that directors outside of Broadway control would do to A Chorus Line what director Richard Attenborough did to the movie version -- change the songs, change the plot and generally wreak havoc with a show that some regard as sacred.

The good news at the Civic is that director Stephan deGhelder, who performed in the international company of A Chorus Line and in its record- breaking 1983 performance on Broadway, tried to stay as close as he could to the original conception of the show. DeGhelder reproduced the choreography and direction of Michael Bennett, who created this show, and, with a couple of exceptions, he has passed on the spirit of A Chorus Line intact. The other good news is that, despite a couple of obvious casting problems, the cast of this musical is filled with delights.

A Chorus Line takes place on a nearly bare stage in a near-empty Broadway theater, where dozens of dancers have come to try out for eight spots -- four boys, four girls -- in the chorus of an upcoming show. An all-powerful director puts the group through its paces and then, after narrowing it down to 17 performers, asks them one by one to talk about their lives. The dancers become individuals as they reveal the hard work and the humor and the heartache that brought them to the stage. Once revealed, they are swallowed up in the anonymity of the chorus, unrecognizable once more.

Not all of the 17 parts of the dancers in the original A Chorus Line are well delineated; some of the men's parts, in particular, are easily confused. So it's a tribute to the Civic's cast that many of them make their individual presences known. John R. Sloan, as Mike, performs a delightful version of the lighthearted ''I Can Do That,'' complete with flips across the stage; Patti Straut and David Cowen, as Kristine and Al, bring plenty of humor to ''Sing,'' the song about a singer who can't.

Cindy Mariko Haroutunian is cute as Connie, the 4-foot-10-inch Chinese girl, and Christopher David Kabool is affecting as the naive, teen-age Mark. Caroline Ludvik makes the most of ''Dance 10 Looks 3,'' the convert's ode to the joys of plastic surgery. And Colleen McKinney, Janine Rinaldi and Kimberly A. Wells sound gorgeous in their moving trio, ''At the Ballet.''

The best of this production is made up of moments like that one -- the three women singing beautifully of the childhood pains that led them to dance; the spirited Ellie Walken, as Diana Morales, summoning up the nerve to quit her acting class in the song ''Nothing''; and especially Tony Natale's emotional monologue as Paul, the Puerto Rican boy who started out as a dancer in a drag show. Natale can do no wrong in this show, and it is performances like his, and those of Ellie Walken and Colleen McKinney (as Sheila) that bring the spirit of A Chorus Line to life.

Some of the production's performances are not so well drawn. Betty Atchison is a lovely Cassie, but one who becomes monotonously overwrought, and Alex Laneau doesn't have the dynamism needed for the character of Richie. Joseph Hansel doesn't make much impression as Zach (and one might fault his costume, which makes him look less like a Broadway director and more like a discount tire salesman).

A bigger problem is Zach's appearance onstage at the beginning of the show, when he is supposed to be only a disembodied voice at the back of the theater, and again at the end, as part of the chorus line. The two appearances give the actor a bigger role, if that's the point. But the first detracts from the mood of the show, and the second -- since when do directors perform with their own choruses? -- simply makes no sense.

Still, there are moments of magic in this production -- when Paul tells his story, when the chorus sings as a whole -- and those moments come frequently. The Civic has taken on a huge task, both artistically and technically, with A Chorus Line, and it has proved the skeptics wrong. It's a sweet kind of wrong to be.